Batteries, silicon among five hottest fields in scientific research

If your work involves batteries or silicon, consider yourself among the members of the five hottest fields in scientific research.

Thomson Reuters’ “Research Fronts 2014: 100 Top Ranked Specialities in the Sciences and Social Sciences” identifies the top 100 hottest fields of scientific research, as well as nearly four dozen emerging research fronts. These two lists are determined based on a “comprehensive analysis” of citations in scientific literature, specifically, InCities Essential Science Indicators research platform and data from the Web of Science, according to a Thomson Reuters news release.

According to the report, produced in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the five hottest fields in scientific research (in no particular order) are:

2. Longer-life batteries. We write about batteries, well, often. (See here, here, here, here, and here). And when we do, we’re writing about the wealth of research being done. The quest to deliver the highest-powered, lowest-cost, and longest-lasting battery on the market is constant. We would be shocked if batteries weren’t in the top five.

3. Silicon science. This is a selection on which we agree: Silicon science is hot. Thomson Reuters points to growth properties of silicon and physics among the field’s “noteworthy” topics.